Thursday, August 31, 2017

The exquisite experimental portraiture work of photographer Benjamin Goss looks antique yet is in fact current. But his technique is old school: using large format cameras and color negatives, he develops his photos instead of printing them digitally which accounts for the lovely, wistful look and the almost random behavior of the color.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

"Loving Vincent" is the world's first completely painted biographical animated film. Based on the life and death of painter Vincent Van Gogh, each of the film's 65,000 frames is an actual fully realized oil painting on canvas in the style of Van Gogh. It is set for a September 22, 2017 limited release here in the United States.

And here is "The Sower With Setting Sun" from the soundtrack of "Loving Vincent" by Clint Mansell.

Monday, August 28, 2017

"Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard."
--Haruki Murakami, from KAFKA ON THE SHORE

Sunday, August 27, 2017

As part of Copenhagen's Snedker Studio, textile designer Pernille Snedker Hansen creates marvelous painted wood floors using the ancient handcrafted art of marbling (the technique used to create classic endpapers for books). By swirling paint onto a fluid surface and dipping planks onto the paint, the marbling design is transferred. As an Interior Designer, I would love to use these gorgeous, one-of-a-kind planks in a project!

Her Refraction Series #1 fits together beautifully and can be configured in a bookmatched pattern...

...and Refraction #2 can be configured into a chevron pattern.

I think her Wave pattern might be my favorite. She says her aim with this technique is to invoke old-growth tree rings and this pattern feels wonderfully organic.

And for some curves, the Arch series creates a pleasing, rhythmic pattern.

Saturday, August 26, 2017

For Glass Cares, the design initiative studio Off Portugal enlisted ten designers to create original glass pieces which will be shown in the the "Inspiring Portugal" design pavilion at the upcoming London Design Fair in September, 2017.

Friday, August 25, 2017

"In the summer of 1900 a Daoist monk traveled to the edge of the Gobi Desert on a retreat. Locals had told him about some unusual caves on the eastern slope of Echoing-Sand Mountain. They sounded like the perfect place to meditate. However, upon his arrival he discovered more than caves. In front of him lay a series of grottoes containing complete temples carved into the mountainside. Meditation gave way to exploration. He found fantastic frescoes covering walls and ceilings, deities carved into bedrock, and evidence of a once vibrant, now abandoned community. Inside one cave he found a vault containing thousands of documents dating all the way back to the fourth century. In time, exploration gave way to knowledge and he uncovered ancient instructions on how to magically wield this week’s New Arrival.This week’s New Arrival features a Yak bone Phurba from Nepal. Also known as a Kila or ritual dagger, it is really a ritual implement used by shamans. Yet, who uses it is less important than why it is used. The documents discovered in 1900 revealed how the Phurba could connect heaven and earth; obliterate violence and aggression; and vanquish ignorance, intolerance and insensitivity. Capable of destroying negativity through transmutation, if used properly it can neutralize prejudice, anger, and hate; whether those thought forms are generated by an individual or a group. Although the Phurba is not a physical weapon, it is the only weapon demanding deployment now."

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

In his series Advaita (which means "non-duality" in Sanskrit), Greek photographer Petros Koublis shows a visual representation of ideas he outlines in his artist statement for the series:

It moves, it does not move. It is far and near likewise
It is inside all this. It is outside all this
That is full, this is full. Fullness comes forth from fullness
When fullness is taken from fullness, fullness remains--Isha UpanishadEverything is a flow, a constant one, coherent, continuous, perfect. A stream that never remains the same, yet so complete that it never changes. It is a space that expands under our perception, throughout the world, imperceptible and vast, continuous and indefinite. Consciousness is pouring out of this space and when it experiences it again, this time through the body, it feels like water poured into water. It is because they share the same nature, they’re inseparable and indivisible. It is like the waves that emerge as a single entity, but only for a moment, before they merge back into the ocean they appeared from. We are also very much like these waves. We surface for a moment and then merge the Universe. The Self is present before all forms take shape, solid and coherent, in a motherly connection with the whole existence, unmanifested within the absolute.Everything is real only if it is perceived as the Self. Otherwise it is an illusion. The experience of the Self, this fundamental feeling of oneness, is the experience of Love, the openness of the heart. To come to this realization one gets into the state of a lover, one who has a mind only for the beloved. It is because in Love there is no sense of difference, there can be no separation to be experienced anymore, but instead there is only a transcendence of duality, a sense of infinity, the core of everything. Love is a realization, content and continuous, which is revealed as the absolute nature of Beauty when it is facing outwards and the real nature of Joy when it is facing inwards. There is indeed a wisdom in Love that the mind cannot claim.Infinity is movement and stillness occurring together, simultaneously, in an undivided, perfectly inseparable way. It doesn’t change its form because form is something that takes place within its essence. It doesn’t get revealed because, instead, it is the actual force that reveals everything else. The world arises dependung on our consciousness and our senses arise depending on the world. They both arise and collapse dependent upon each other. There is no distance in between, no duality, not two things separate. Everything is happening inside of us, space, time, form, every aspect is unfolded inside our consciousness. They all manifest inside the infinite ocean of the Self, everything suddenly arises in the wind of consiousness stimulated by the waves of the Universe. We generate the flow, we merge with the flow and we are the flow.We are the recipients but we are also the Universe.

About Me

About "Oh, By The Way"

"Oh, By The Way" is my digital scrap book of things I like, things I would share with a close friend and say: “Oh, by the way, do you know of this artist/ clothing or interior designer/ model/ singer/ actor/ gorgeous man… or, have you seen this video/ photo/ film... or heard (or do you remember) this song/ band... or, read this book/ poem/ inspiring quote... or, visited this place/ restaurant/ famous building... or, have you heard of this amazing new scientific discovery?”

I am dedicated to posting the positive, the fascinating, the beautiful, the interesting, the moving, and the inspiring and uplifting. Sometimes I post cultural as well as personal observations, milestones, and remembrances. And just like life, all of these things may often have a bit of melancholy or even sadness in them, which is what makes our time here so lovely and bittersweet and precious.

Some of the photos, art, poetry, and prose are my own original work, credited with my initials, JEF. When it isn't, I always try to post links to the original source material, but often I find photos on the web that are not linked or other material that is not sourced. In these instances, I post them without malice since it is assumed that such things, by being globally posted on something as uncontrollable as the internet to begin with, are in the public domain. If you identify the source of an image that is not linked, please politely let me know (without accusing me of theft) and I will be happy to provide a link.

I hope to inspire and entertain my readers with things that inspire and entertain ME. There is a startling amount of beauty and creativity in the world and it enriches us all to participate in it.

All-time Favorite Films

2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)

After Hours (Hysterical, hair-raising ride through NYC at night)

Amelie

American Beauty (Alan Ball)

Baraka (Stunning, transcending—the "spiritus mundi" on film)

Belle et Bete (Cocteau)

Big Sleep, The (The epitome of film noir)

Bringing Up Baby (Hepburn & Grant—the epitome of screwball comedy)

Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, The (Greenaway)

Crash (Cronenberg—DIFFICULT subject, not for everyone)

Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg—ultimate modern gothic horror)

Drowning By Numbers (Greenaway)

Easy Rider

Edward II (Derek Jarman)

Erendira (From magic realist Marquez’ brilliant short story)

Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick's last film)

Fearless (Jeff Bridges—life and death)

Funny Bones (Leslie Caron, Jerry Lewis, and the brilliant Lee Evans)

Holiday (Hepburn & Grant)

Howard’s End (The ultimate statement of the unfairness of class systems)